I never was a fan of characters "doing it to protect Clark" storylines. Let us watch him protect himself. As you said they just felt like trying to give the characters something to make the relevant more then anything

Agreed.

Heck, prior to Season 8, I got really frustrated with how Clark was being treated and developed in many ways within seasons 5-7.

1. Clark became way too reliant on Chloe imho, or was written to become way to reliant on her where he would go to her for every little piece of information that he could get. I wanted to see him do more investigation on his own.

2. I didn't like how Clark was used as an excuse to justify the morally gray actions committed by several characters on the show.

3. Whenever Smallville tried to use the gimmick of bringing in a new major player, namely a hero, into the series, it would always come at the expense of Clark's character, where he'd be written to be dependent on those figures and have them tell him on how he should either embrace his roots or be a better hero (Oliver and Kara).

4. I know this probably isn't a issue for some, but it wasn't comfortable at times seeing on how many times Clark was subjected towards being essentially violated by some female characters by how he's put in situations where he's no longer "in control" of his personality, and thus the excuse for the showrunners to display Clark making out with the newest attractive actress.